Blogs are a funny thing.
People want you to read their blog. You want to read their blog. But you don’t want to comment because you don’t want them to KNOW you read their blog.
What is going on??
Why are we blog-shy? Why do I run into someone I know everything about and then act surprised and excited for them when they tell me they are pregnant, or just back from Europe? I KNOW these things about them from their blog! They would LOVE to know people enjoy reading their blog! WHY don’t I tell them?
Well, I have a theory. Blog-readers feel like they are wasting their time reading blogs and fear people will think they are snoopy or voyeuristic, or have too much time on their hands. Only men who don’t understand the full-disclosure agreement of females think this. If I am writing about something on the INTERNET (aka Noprivacyland), then clearly I do not care if you know about it. It is not a dark family secret or where to find the body of that poor sod who was tailgating me, and I would tell you about it in person too if we happened to be chatting.
I was thinking about this because I was a little embarrassed to start a blog, at least one that I let people I know find out about – Would people think I was over-sharing? Would people think I have too much time on my hands? Would people be offended by what I said or didn’t say?
Then I thought, “Who cares? If it’s fun and I enjoy it, why not just do it?”
So if you read someone’s blog, don’t be embarrassed to tell them! And bloggers who post links to blogs on facebook – guess what, I probably read your blog. I love hearing people’s takes on daily life, what brings them up, what brings them down, what they made for supper, what their kids are up to, etc. It’s fun! And the internet has opened this whole new opportunity to share ideas and find support and meet and interact with like-minded people, so why not take advantage of it? I will never think it is weird for you to have read my blog. I will be honoured and flattered that you spent some of your day with me, and I hope you’ll also post a link to your blog in the comments section so I can spend some of my day with you too!
Win-win! Happy blogging to all :)
Hi Anna! I’m a lucky lurker! Just thought I’d let you in on that! I found your blog via facebook and you’re interesting to read!! I’m so going to have to try your recipies! They look delicous! Happy blogging and keep up the good work!
oh Anna! How I have laughed at your posts so far!!!! The yellow Mexican bandaid story had me laughing to tears.
(we had your mil and fil over for coffee this am where they told me about your hilarious blog..and now here I am!)
Keep it up! Maybe one day, when you’ve got a minute, I’ll see your deliciously delectable raspberry lemon pie dessert recipe on here. hint hint:)
Haha, so glad you’re enjoying it! I did in fact take a picture of that lemon raspberry pie last time I made it, but of course I burnt the edges a bit when I wanted to take a picture of it :) I’ll get it up here soon!
I have to laugh, cause Bryan just came by and saw me looking at your blog, and then he said, “Are you being a creeper?” and I started to explain how you don’t believe in creeping, and was trying to find your Lurking Love post, and he said, “I wouldn’t know…” with a silly grin on his face. He read the whole thing last night on my computer… :) Of course, when I asked him what the last post was on my blog, he didn’t know…
LOL, I love it. Lurky Bryan :) I’ll have to figure out what I can write about that will force him to comment :)
Hmmm, reading this makes me self-reflect. I am totally blog shy! I’ve been on blogs and have never left a comment before. (I can’t remember if I commented on your previous blogs before but I’ve been reading them.) Sometimes it’s because I want to briefly read a food blog or something really quickly and don’t have the time to comment anything. But mostly I don’t because I’m shy and worry that people I don’t know at all or hardly know will think: Who are you? And you read my blog?
But then again it is nice to know someone reads your blog. I’ve been writing a few blogs for FLC and no one has ever commented on my blogs. I didn’t think anyone ever read them until Jon mentioned that a few regular customers talked about them. Then one day when I was in the bike shop, a guy from the Whistler/Kelowna Grand Fondos called and said that he read our last post because he subscribes to our blogs on Google reader. I was ECSTATIC! Someone reads my blog!!!
I definitely agree, especially about food blogs – I usually just want to grab a recipe, not comment on it. I often read a blog without commenting…including yours :) So I’ve decided if I ever actually SEE someone whose blog I read I should just tell them rather than think about what I say to make sure they can’t guess!
I too love reading peoples blogs and do comment from time to time. Haven’t written one myself for awhile because the fingers can’t work that long anymore,as in, this is already to much typing :o(
Love the description of who you are :) You’ll just have to do really short posts really often, you’ll keep us on the edge of our seats waiting to hear the whole story!
With my blog I have had people talk to me about things that I did not actually tell them and that they read on my blog but they never leave comments. It is kind of awkward if they are reading it but are too shy to comment or tell me they read it and it only slips out when they tell me something I know they read on my blog. I only have 5 followers but I know that several people read it but will not comment. If they are too shy to comment, should they not be embarassed that they are reading it and I do not even know it? :-) I have enjoyed your blog so far. I love blogging.
I don’t know…I don’t think they should be embarrassed, I have definitely told people before when “meeting” them that I have read their blog, just so that doesn’t happen that they wonder how I know things :) But depending what the post is about I don’t always have something to comment about…does that make sense? It is fun though, I’m glad I started :)
While I enjoy reading your blog, I am not one of those females who believes in a full disclosure agreement. There really is such a thing as ‘too much information’. So if any dirty family secrets start coming out, I will have to say something :)
Haha, no family secrets in the plans! I mean a full disclosure agreement in that if it’s one the internet I’m ok with it being public knowledge :)